Street-car annunciator



J. L. SCROGGINS.

STREET CAR ANNUNCIATOR.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 15, 1919.

1,850,038. tented Aug. 17, 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

147' T aim/2Y5 J. L. SCROGGINS. STREET CAR ANN UNCIATOR. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 16, 1919.

Patented Aug. 17, 1920.

2 SHEE1S-SHEET 2. Pa

l VfTA/ES 5 JAMES L. SCROGG-INS, 0F BENNINGTON, OKLAHOMA.

STREET-CAB ANN UN CIATOB.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 17, 1920.

Application filed September 16, 1919. Serial No. 324,146.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES L. SCROGGINS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bennington, in the county of Bryan and State of Oklahoma, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street-Car Annunciators, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in street indicators or annunciators for street cars and is devised to automatically indicate the consecutive stops as the car proceeds.

A primary object of these improvements is to provide a mechanism of this character which possesses simplicity, so as to eliminate so far as possible the, likelihood of the mechanism becoming disordered,said mechanism being electrically operated to impart the required increment of movement to a curtain or web bearing street or stop indicia, the operation of the web in one direction storing up energy which subsequently becomes operative when a reversal of the web takes place.

A further object in View is to provide novel means to impart step by step movement to the web and to produce an audible signal to direct attention to the change being made.

A still further object in view is to provide a novel form of circuit closer which is operated from the overhead current wire.

These and such other objects as may hereinafter appear are attained by the novel construction, combination and arrangement ofparts to be hereinafter specifically described and claimed. Reference will now be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the indicator apparatus forming the subject matter of this invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view through the indicator casing.

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view thereof.

Fig. 4: is a perspective fragmentary view of the web actuating means.

Fig. 5 is a sectional View of the circuit closer used with this apparatus, and

Fig. 6 is a detailed perspective View of the reversing lever and the actuating pawls for actuating the indicator web.

Throughout the following detail description and on the several figures of the drawings, similar parts are referred reference characters.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates the indicator casing having the window 2 at the front thereof through which the name of the street or stop carried by the web 3 within the casing is displayed, this casing being adapted for arrangement within the car at a convenient place for observation by the passengers.

The web 3 is carried by the upper roller or spool 4 and the lower spool 5 which are journaled within the casing, the said web being rolled from the upper to the lower by the actuating mechanism hereinafter to be described. With reference to the upper roller it will be observed that the shaft 6 therefor carries adjacent one end the pinion 7 which meshes with the gear 8 of the spring motor or drum 9. The tension of the spring of this motor is of a suflicient charactor to permit the web to be completely rolled from the upper to the lower roller and at such time to actuate the web in the opposite direction as will later be described.

The lower roller is mounted upon the shaft 10 which carries ad'acent one end of the spool the notched disk 11 with which a spring 12 coacts tohold the spool in proper position and prevent the web from becoming loosened. The shaft 10 also carries the pinion 13 which meshes with the large gear 14, said gearbeing preferably disposed between the ratchet wheels 15, 16. These ratchet wheels are adapted to be actuated by the respective pawls 17, 18, which, as will be observed in Fig. 6, are suspended from the extension 19 of the armature 20. The pawls are bent at their extremities so that one will lie upon one side of the gear let while the other is arranged upon the oppoto by like site side so as to coact with its proper ratchet wheel, the gear 14 acting to hold these pawls in this position. The pawls are connected midway by the cross bar 21 at the end of the reversing lever 22 the pintle connections between this lever and the pawls being such as to permit of vertical movement of the pawls owing to the provision of the slots 23.

It will be noticed that the extremity of the extension 19 constitutes a bell tapper coacting with the bell 24 so that each time the extension is actuated the bell will be rung for the purpose of directing attention to the change which is being made. The armature 20 is operated by the conventional electro-inagnet 25 to which the circuit wires These w1res extend irom the annunciator casing 1 to the trolley pole 26 are connected.

27 of the car, at the upper portionot which they terminate within a housing 28. One of the wires is connected to thestationary contact 29 while the other isconnected to the movable contact 30. The latter is adapted to be actuated to open and close the circuit by means of the lever 31 pivoted intermediate its length at 32. The extremity ofthis lever is in the form of an arcuate plate 83' and is designed to impinge the arm at which is supported upon the current wire 35 so that said arm or lever 31 will cause opening and closing of the indicator circuit at the proper places for the change of the web to indicate the next stop.

Briefly summarizing the operation of the device, as just indicated, when the car reaches a predetermined point where "the cir-' cuit closing'arm .34 is disposed, the circuit closing electric circuit to the electro-magnet or mag nets 25. This'causes downward movements of the armature and extension 19, which in turn' depresses the pawl 17 or 18 and actu ates the ratchet wheel which is in cooper tion with the active pawl. In the posi of these pawls shown in Fig. 3 this move ment will tend to impart movement to the lowenweb roller which will wind "the web upon the latter and this will bring the name already mentioned the hell or signal is operated'each time the change of street name takes place. As a detail of this mechanism means is actuated so as to close the a switch is usually interposed in the circuit, as designated at 36 so that the operation of the annunciator may be discontinued when so desired. This enables the annunciator to be set at proper positions according to the route followed by the car, a manual wheel '37 being provided upon the lower roller for this purpose. c

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is: v

1; A street annunciator of the class described comprising a web, rollers upon which *atehet mechanism including spaced pawls suspended from the armature of the electromagnet,and a gear member interposed between said pawls to hold them in operative position, said gear being connected to one of the web rollers to actuate the same.

'2. A street annunciator comprising -cas ing, spaced-web rollers journaled therein, a

web adapted tobe wound from one roller to the other iii-either of reverse directions, and means to move the web comprising an armature lever, a solenoid for actuating said lever, a pair of pawls pi'votally connected at corresponding ends to the lever, ratchet wheels with which said pawls cooperate and connected with one of the web rollers, a signal comprising a bell, and a tappet car ried by said armature lever and arranged to strike the bell as the lever is operated to actuate said pawls. i

3. An annunciator substantially as claimed in claim 2 wherein the means connecting the ratchet wheels and one of said rollers consists of agear o'peratively connected to the roller and located intermediate. the ratchet wheels, and a lever plvotally mounted'upon the axis of said gear and having connection with the said pawls to shi-ttthe' latter to er"- tect engagement of one or the other fpawl with its respective ratchet wheel.

In testimony whereo'l I afiixmy'signature.

JAMES L. SGRUGGIN'S. 

